"Foxhole guys:" Grit guiding Northwest men back to the Elite Eight

Mar. 20—Ben McCollum admitted this season hasn't been easy for Northwest Missouri State men's basketball.

"I just think about all the hair that I've lost," McCollum told reporters in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, before the Bearcats' seventh regional title game in eight tournaments.

But over the the last week, he was reminded just how gritty the Bearcats were.

After knocking off MSU Moorhead and Washburn in the Central Region Tournament, the Bearcats (31-5) beat top-seeded Augustana in the championship game Tuesday.

"They don't do anything perfect and it's not easy," McCollum said. "But they're tough and they're resilient."

With the win, the Bearcats punched their ticket to their third-straight Elite Eight appearance.

After hitting a rough patch last month which saw the Bearcats drop three conference matchups in nearly two weeks, Northwest has now now won eight games in a row.

Even deep into the postseason, McCollum often finds himself comparing this team to last year's, as he saw his players wanting to win with a "whatever it takes" mentality.

"It's just a different story, man. It's hard to explain because you're you're trying to — and I still do it —you're trying to search for what was and you know, 2021 is gone," McCollum said. "This just happens to be that team where you're going to go into a game and the first half and offensively is fantastic. Then the second half you're a train wreck and you got to just get stops and be tough and get loose balls and score enough. And that is what it is. That's what we have to do."

The Bearcats have survived and advanced in large part to the MVP of the Central Region Tournament, Northwest junior guard Trevor Hudgins.

In three regional games, Hudgins averaged 17.7 points per game and shot 52.6% from the floor, while handing out 17 assists and collecting four steals.

Even though the two-time Central Region Player of the Year and three-time MIAA Player of the Year consistently steps up to plate, Hudgins feels comfortable relying on his teammates.

"I mean, I feel like our team is a dangerous team, honestly, just all around. We have people that can make plays, we have people that can shoot, we have people that can finish," Hudgins said. "We have a lot of pieces in our in our group that can produce a lot of things."

The backcourt of Hudgins and Diego Bernard aren't used to losing in March. With a 14-0 record in NCAA Tournament action, they aren't ready to hang their jerseys up yet.

Hudgins said, "We'll sacrifice anything for each other and we also encourage each other — a lot of confidence going back and forth during games. He tells me to shoot. I tell him, hey we need a big stop here, and you know the rest is history. I mean you've seen it for past four years, it's really special just playing with him."

As the Bearcats make their sixth appearance at the Elite Eight with a third-straight national title on the line — something never done before in Division II — McCollum trusts who he has in his corner.

"They're foxhole guys. They'll hop in that foxhole with you. They're a bunch of dudes that in last 10 minutes — there's no one else you want. There's no one else you want on that team because they're jumping there with you and they got your back and it makes it a lot more fun that way," McCollum said.

The No. 5-seeded Bearcats face No. 4-seeded Bentley (25-4) in the Elite Eight Tuesday at noon in Evansville, Indiana.

Micaela Dea can be reached at micaela.dea@newspressnow.com.

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